Games and Cathode Rays: Discourses on a New Medium in the Italian Specialized Magazines (1981-1988)

Diego Cavallotti

2023-01-01

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Abstract

This paper focuses on the discourses surrounding video games developed within the Italian context during the 1980s. More precisely, it investigates the specialized magazines context, which, in those days, was mainly made up of game-oriented, tinkering-oriented, and video-oriented publications. Through an analysis of the video game “dispositive”, this study observes the emergence of specific epistemic frameworks and discursive layers: these magazines are crucial for reconstructing the cultural context of a specific area while a new medium is taking over the Italian living rooms and game arcades. Through an analysis of such materials, the article pinpoints pivotal discourses around value that surrounded the emergence of video games in the Italian media landscape. It also reflects upon the kind of readers implied by those magazines. Therefore, this article reconstructs the epistemic framework in which video games emerged as a cultural phenomenon in Italy, observing both the discursive recurrences concerning the medium and how specialized magazines molded their audiences.